If you could travel to the UK, and are interested in using more ICT in the classroom ICT Links into Languages weekend event will showcase all you need to know about ICT in the MFL classroom.

Whether you want to find out how to use blogs and wikis to trying out digital voice recorders, you?ll be inspired to try something new! A range of speakers will demonstrate tried and tested models for different skill levels. You don?t have to be an expert in ICT to attend.

It’s on a Saturday and Sunday so would be possible to make it even if you have to work Friday and Monday… there are direct flights from Dublin to Southampton.

Dr Sarah Smyth, Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies (TCD), was awarded the Pushkin Medal by President Medvedev for her contribution to the promotion of Russian language and culture in the world. This medal is awarded annually by Presidential decree to ten people from the fields of culture or education. The award ceremony was held in the Kremlin palace on 4th November, the Russian national holiday. In her speech , Sarah made reference to encouraging new developments in Irish-Russian relations, and looked forward to both sides building on newly strengthened foundations. In the current year other visitors to Russia from Ireland include Bono, on the occasion of a U2 concert in Moscow, and President McAleese, who accompanied a trade and education mission in September. In addition to Sarah’s work in Trinity and further afield, she has been a member of the management committee of the Post-Primary Languages Initiative since its inception and has made an enormous contribution to the work of introducing Russian in our schools.

I know that some of you have mentioned in the past the need to do more promotion in relation to the importance and value for students of learning Russian and maybe we could do this next year. We would really welcome any ideas you may have in relation to possibilities for such a project. I will also try to make some time to visit some of you in your schools and classes early next year so that we can discuss further but in the meantime, all suggestions and comments welcome!

There are different types of blog but basically, at least in the beginning, in terms of the learners, I see this as a blog where students can get writing practice, have what they have written read by other students and then with the comment features of the blog, more interaction and communication in the target language is promoted.

It is probably a good idea to begin by asking your students to write on a specific activity or topic, providing them with guidelines in the form of some questions they could answer. This will motivate them and help them to focus, at least in the beginning. Expressing opinions via blogs has also been shown to help with language learning because being able to express themselves online increases their level of confidence (see this this link for a useful discussion of how language learning takes place by blogging).

You could give also give them a project to do that would, for example, develop writing and research skills, and the blog would then also be used to showcase their work as well as providing an online resource for use by others. You can post different specific ideas here that would be appropriate for the different levels of students you have and that would also reflect the needs of the curriculum.

Another way you could use the blog with your students would be as an on-line personal diary for students, a place where they could write an account of their learning via the blog. We know from the research that when students monitor and evaluate their learning they learn better, and that they also learn better when they when keep a written record of what they do.

Specific activities you think you could use for language learning via this blog please!